It's a public vote, free for all. The rules say "Entries will be scored by the public (including entrants) for â€œBest Overall Game.â€" For what the rules are worth these days, that is. So, go rate your own game.

There's no way to enforce a rule against that, anyway, so it would be pointless to enact.

DavidGuy Wrote:When it comes to '"Best Gameplay", "Best Graphics", etc., the rules state: "For the six â€œpeerâ€ categories, each entrant will score every entry besides their own."

Also, from past and recent emails, it seems steps have been and will be taken to prevent any shenanigans.

Yes, everyone has been looked at sharply and been warned to behave like good chaps.

There's 20 entries if I counted right, but I am taking bets how many votes we'll see, should the voting data ever be made public, considering there isn't even a way to track who has actually cast a vote, and no way to revise your vote, either. So even if noone maliciously tries to influence voting, there's about 101 things that can and will go wrong, and will distort scoring.

DoG Wrote:Yes, everyone has been looked at sharply and been warned to behave like good chaps.

There's 20 entries if I counted right, but I am taking bets how many votes we'll see, should the voting data ever be made public, considering there isn't even a way to track who has actually cast a vote, and no way to revise your vote, either. So even if noone maliciously tries to influence voting, there's about 101 things that can and will go wrong, and will distort scoring.

So... What's happening then?
I'm not going to vote for my game because Carlos said not to and in the event that he does have some kind of system that flags IPs, I don't want to be excluded.
On the other hand, will that put those of us who don't vote for ourselves in a crippled position(i.e is my game good enough to survive without 10 points)

I had assumed voting would be made public after the contest. I took a peek at one of the voting pages (even though I'm not ready to cast my votes yet), and noticed there is a review section. I had planned to add at least a few sentences to each of my votes explaining how I voted and what I like and don't like about each game. If the developer doesn't get to see that info I won't bother.
Personally I would like to get that kind of feedback from every developer in the contest. I've gotten some good constructive feedback about my game, but would always like more. Thats part of the point of the contest in my mind. Helps us make better games.

mattness Wrote:I had assumed voting would be made public after the contest. I took a peek at one of the voting pages (even though I'm not ready to cast my votes yet), and noticed there is a review section. I had planned to add at least a few sentences to each of my votes explaining how I voted and what I like and don't like about each game. If the developer doesn't get to see that info I won't bother.
Personally I would like to get that kind of feedback from every developer in the contest. I've gotten some good constructive feedback about my game, but would always like more. Thats part of the point of the contest in my mind. Helps us make better games.

Well in 2004 we did get those comments, so I wouldn't worry about it. Granted we got them after the voting was over and the results were tallied but that was fine by me. Getting comments beforehand is what the feedback threads were for.

I also intend to give everyone an in-depth review, at least a paragraph for each game with plusses and minuses. I remember Aaron Sullivan did that in 2004 and it was very much appreciated.

mattness Wrote:I had assumed voting would be made public after the contest. I took a peek at one of the voting pages (even though I'm not ready to cast my votes yet), and noticed there is a review section. I had planned to add at least a few sentences to each of my votes explaining how I voted and what I like and don't like about each game. If the developer doesn't get to see that info I won't bother.
Personally I would like to get that kind of feedback from every developer in the contest. I've gotten some good constructive feedback about my game, but would always like more. Thats part of the point of the contest in my mind. Helps us make better games.

I'd planned on doing that, but I've only scored one game so far, and, frankly, I couldn't think of any criticism that I hadn't posted already(And I didn't post much).
But yeah, that's a good idea.

It's a public vote, free for all. The rules say "Entries will be scored by the public (including entrants) for â€œBest Overall Game.â€" For what the rules are worth these days, that is. So, go rate your own game.

There's no way to enforce a rule against that, anyway, so it would be pointless to enact.

I think the rules could be written a lot more clearly on this point, but having seen that on the peer voting pages there is an overall score category it seems the:

"Entries will be scored by the public (including entrants) for â€œBest Overall Game.â€ Entries will be scored by entrants only, in six additional categories:"

Is all referring to the pages we are supposed to use to peer vote, not to the public vote. At least that's my take on it.